Imagine Breaker: On Science and Progression

Imagine Breaker is somewhat cliche already if you would associate it with the the power of nullification and force negation. Is it just me or I’m seeing more of what Imagine Breaker really is? I don’t know if I’ll do make sense but I was able to think of this idea primarily because the anime talks about science as the source of the ESP power of the students. I don’t think I’d be able to think of this post if Touma is simply nullifying “magic” attacks. Also, I see an implication of why Imagine Breaker could also bring tough luck for the beholder.

Science is often associated with technology and vice versa. When one mentions about science, technological advancements follow. It is because of this inter-relation that science could partly be blamed for the present situation of our nature, lifestyle, and even the level of happiness we derive from these things that technology produced for our own convenience.

What if Industrial Revolution never happened? Probably, the technology we experience nowadays would be so different. So different that we might not be able to manage similarly to what we can do now.

I’d like to allude this to the battle between Accelerator and Touma. Basically, Accelerator is regarded “strong” since he was gifted with such power of altering the direction, and even the magnitude of vectors, but his power was definitely useless against Touma’s Imagine Breaker. He’d be deemed useless by now, but thanks to his power that he can pretend and act strong even though it is just superficial.

Yup, superficial. We saw how Accelerator was knocked by Touma by merely using his fist while Accelerator doesn’t even made a counter since he doesn’t possess natural prowess for fighting, except for his skill in utilizing his power (which is negated by Imagine Breaker, thus useless.). It just portrays how difficult the fight was for Accelerator given he doesn’t have any super power of sort.

I think there’s an implicit message behind the Imagine Breaker of Touma. It’s just similar to us, present generation, those who can’t continue to live their lives without failing to use all those gadgets, machinery and might as well the Internet non-stop. We’ve became so versatile on using these gadgets that the youngsters (which includes me) these days are so accustomed to it already. Well, no one’s saying that it’s bad since we are just taking advantage of what is present and what would provide us the most convenient and larger in output in terms of work. Economically speaking, technology is a function of production, which then hints us, that improvements in technology really improves the output of not just firms but also of the individuals.

But, what if some sort of technological failure happened and all gadgets, machinery and all those techie-stuffs just suddenly stopped working? Would the technology dependent society be able to cope up? This is the very same dilemma Accelerator faced when he found out that Touma could nullify his ability by getting in contact with him. As what we’ve seen from the battle, Accelerator was knocked out by Touma because Accelerator didn’t know how to fight purely with his own strength, he has been fighting and winning all this time through the help of his ability.

Meanwhile Imagine Breaker does carry an air of misfortune probably because it represents simplicity, or a revert to the basic. Misfortune, probably is not that literal in this sense since probably it should be inconvenience, since Imagine Breaker cancels “science”. But, as we can see, Touma’s life is not that miserable given that he possess Imagine Breaker. It doesn’t hamper him from living a normal student life, it’s just that it’s “inconvenient” that he is regarded level 0 — but in some way, lucky since his enemies won’t expect that he is actually strong enough to beat them.

In summary, if we relate this on our present situation, with all these technology advancements around us, it still probably recommended, and best if we ourselves are capable of not relying sheerly on technology. Or else, we’ll find ourselves on a bind if one day, it disappears — Just like how Touma came to existence in front Accelerator, or even for Misaka.

Or if technology is miniaturized into nanites, and its presence in our bodies becomes indistinguishable from the regular cells. Technology is dangerous because you can be disarmed. If you couldn’t be disarmed of it, then that point is gone.

Yeah, that’s definitely dangerous since you’re very vulnerable unlike if you yourself is capable of fighting even without it.

RVL says: March 25, 201012:26 pm

There's a term for this in Sociology, I forgot what, but it has something to with Post-Industrialist societies easily collapsing while Basic Agricultural societies endure for an indefinite period of time.